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Vol. XXXII Issue 6; March 2nd fortnight i ssue 2020 A DDP PUBLICATION ` 20/-
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Vol. XXXII Issue 6; March 2nd fortnight i ssue 2020 A DDP PUBLICATION ` 20/-A DDP PUBLICATION
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Rupinder Brar says that while MOT is taking up the issue of
TCS with the Ministry of Finance, they are also updating informa-tion regarding COVID-19 and re-
lated advisories on their website for travellers and tour operators.
She shared, “On behalf of the tour operators, we are definitely bringing it before the Ministry of Finance that this measure is a lit-
tle harsh and it’s for us to voice the concerns of the industry. We have done that and we will con-tinue our dialogue with the MOF to find a common dialogue and see how we can resolve the con-cerns of the tour operators.”
Apart from that she agreed that COVID-19 issue and its effect on travel is serious. “We have been putting out all the advisories that have been brought out by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of External Affairs on our website,
which clearly gives out the status of COVID-19 for anyone planning a trip to and from India. Also, I should say that the screening at the airports and sea-ports is robust to ensure that the spread can be avoided,” she said.
MOT voices trade concern on TCS Rupinder Brar, Addl. Director General (ADG), Tourism, shares that they are voicing the industry's concerns on TCS to Finance Ministry and updating their website on COVID-19.
TT Bureau
Rupinder Brar Additional Director General Ministry of Tourism
Addressing a press confer-ence on the COVID-19
issue, Hardeep Singh Puri revealed that screening of pas-sengers coming from all parts of the world is currently being carried on at 30 Indian airports and 6,49,452 passengers had been screened till March 6, 2020. He said, “My advice to everyone, whether they have
gone as a tourist or have come to India as part of a tour group, if they have symptoms, they should get themselves checked. While the number of cases of COVID-19 in India is not very high, we can’t afford to take chances. If someone came in before the universal checking of all passengers at airports started, they should come for-ward for a check in case of any symptoms. Some people have
been identified already, and if they show any signs, they will be immediately tested. We are
taking all external precautions needed, and the cabinet sec-retary is taking meetings every day. Under the overall control of PMO, and the PM personally, we have two groups—one is a group of ministers headed by Dr Harsh Vardhan, of which I am a member. There is another group headed by the Cabi-net Secretary, which is taking regular meetings with all related ministries including Health,
Defence, External Affairs, Civil Aviation, Home, Textiles, Com-merce, Pharmaceuticals and other officials, including State Chief Secretaries. Each of these groups meet many times to take stock of the situation. It’s a case where all parts of the govern-ment are active and in 24-hour contact with each other. He in-sisted that all concerned agen-cies are working in cooperation with each other.
Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (I/C), Civil Aviation, has advised travellers to voluntarily get themselves checked for COVID-19, in case they have any symptoms of the disease, which has now been declared a pandemic.
Airport screening tightenedNisha Verma
Hardeep Singh PuriMinister of State (I/C) Civil Aviation
If someone came in before the universal checking of all passengers started, they should come forward in case of symptoms
Pages : 28
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BULLETIN
At the recently held interac-tive luncheon meeting of
IATO, Rajesh Mudgill, Hony Secretary, IATO shared de-tails about the association’s upcoming elections. “The last date for filing the nominations is March 19, 2020, while the withdrawal of nominations can be done latest by 3 pm on
March 24, 2020. The Return-ing Officer for the election is Akshay Kumar, CEO, Mercury Himalayan Explorations, and all fur ther correspondence for the elections will be made by him.
The nomination form for con-testing the elections can only be proposed and seconded by active members. Only the authorised person, who is rep-resenting the company in IATO, would be eligible to propose, second or contest for the elec-tions,” said Mudgill.
In addition, Pronab Sarkar, President, IATO, addressed the
members and shared the high-lights about his two consecu-tive terms. Sharing updates on airline-related matters, valid-ity of Airport Entry Passes and other issues, Rajiv Mehra, Vice
President, IATO, said, “The Bu-reau of Civil Aviation Security,
Government of India, has ex-tended the validity of Airport En-try Passes for tour operators till March 31, 2020. No new pass-es will be issued till the time new guidelines are issued. The
bureau is working to formulate a new mechanism for passes and sought support of IATO in training the applicants of the passes. Apart from this, IndiGo has introduced daily non-stop flights on Agra-Varanasi, Agra-Bhopal and Agra-Lucknow route w.e.f. March 29, 2020. Mem-bers are requested to make use of these new flights and promote IndiGo.”
IATO also invited SC Kamra, Advocate and GST Consultant for IATO, for clearing doubts and queries of members on tax-related issues and inform them about the new TCS pro-posed by the Finance Minister in the Union Budget 2020-21. The amendments will be effec-tive from April 1, 2020.
According to a formal docu-ment by IATO, as per the de-cision of the Annual General Meeting, the provisional ac-counts for the financial year 2019-20 will be presented by the Chartered Accountant for approval of the general body before election begins.
The Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) has announced its biennial elections, which will take place on April 25, 2020 at 10:30 am at The Ashok Hotel, New Delhi. The last date for filing nominations is March 19.
IATO elections on April 25
Manas Dwivedi
FINAL_TT_March-2nd-2020.indd 5 3/17/2020 10:53:58 AM
GUESTCOLUMN
VIEWPOINTVIEWPOINT
Follow-ups close more salesIf you are a sales professional, whether in inbound space or do-ing corporate sales, emails form a major part of your daily life. Sel-dom do we get to close sales by sending a single email.
We send an email and we wait for a revert. If we don't get one, we follow up. Follow-ups, despite be-ing the most boring part of a sales routine, is the most critical.
As data suggests, most sales professionals give up after 3-4 follow-ups and conversions usu-ally happen after the fifth one. The question naturally arises why sales professionals give up on follow-ups when they are so critical to closing sales?
Nine out of 10 salespeople, who were asked this question, said it slipped their mind or they just forgot. There are excellent solu-tions for doing your sales follow-
up on autopilot. It is a set it-forget it way and it brings results. Sales follow-ups can be automated. As
most salespeople would tell you, in majority of cases, the messag-es that they send for follow-ups are repetitive and similar in na-ture. By writing a pre-configured sequence to be sent on set days, if the prospect does not reply, and attaching it to your email, you can set it and forget it.
The sales follow-up tool works on reply detection. Until it does not detect a reply, it would keep on following up, or till such time that the sequence finishes off. I usually recommend a 10-step sequence spread over 3-4 weeks in most of the cases.
Most of these tools have been designed to work on G Suite/ Gmail and some do work with
Microsoft Exchange or Of-fice 365 (If that is where your email is hosted). Most of these tools also have email tracking built-in to let you know when your email has been read. You also get a free trial to check these tools out.
Follow-ups for salespeople is the best tool for converting a sales call into business. While most sales professionals give up after three to four follow-ups, it would be interesting to note that one can actually close a deal after the fifth follow-up.
The business of sales calls
(The views expressed are the author's own. The publication may
or may not subscribe to the same.)
Data suggests, most sales professionals give up after 3-4 follow ups and conversions usually happen after the fifth one. There are excellent solutions for sales follow-ups
CIN: U22210DL2012PTC230432
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The outbound travel market is leaving no stone unturned to convince Government of India
that the newly introduced TCS 206 (C) section would sabotage their business. Travel agents and outbound tour operators are running from pillar to post in order to give their representation to various ministries and government bodies, to make them understand what they stand to lose in a scenario if this tax regime comes into effect. The Ministry of Tourism is also working to communicate the issue to the Ministry of Finance. However, no response has come from the finance ministry as yet. Travel trade is pushing the envelope in every way possible — right from social media to calling out SOS meetings of associations and going for multiple visits to government offices. The point they want to put forward is that while the package cost will increase by 10-15%, they will also lose their business to foreign companies and OTAs. While there is still time for the Budget to be officially implemented, the travel trade is hopeful of getting some relief.
TCS remains a stress
Will domestic travel soar? WHO has officially declared coronavirus or
COVID-19 as a pandemic, a bigger reason why governments around the world are advising their citizens to avoid international travel for safety concerns. While India remained comparatively unaffected till earlier this month, the travel industry, including the Ministry of Tourism, is pinning its hope on domestic travel under the ‘Dekho Apna Desh’ banner. However, in the last 15 days, cases in India are on a rise across many regions, which has now diminished the scope of domestic travel as well. However, domestic airlines are still trying to lure people to travel by offering discounts and offers every day. In fact, with India closing its borders for travel to and from the country, domestic travel remains the most viable option for everyone. The point of contention here is how much people are willing to travel in times where they are even scared of stepping out of their homes?
Vishal Mehra Managing Partner - Acquisitions Roaring Representations
January 2020 witnessed a month-on-month drop in ADR, occupancy and RevPAR according to HVS’ monthly newsletter titled ‘Hotels & Hospitality Overview India’. Both ADR and RevPAR fell short by more than two per cent, month on month.
Hotel industry takes a hit
Going by HVS ANAROCK’s recent analysis on the hotel sector in India in a report titled ‘Hotels & Hospitality Overview India’, in the month of January 2020, while ADR for the top 13 markets in India stood at approximately `6,560, average RevPAR was recorded at `4,620.
Occupancy for the month stood at 70.5 per cent. The report also notes that all three indicators – ADR, occupancy and RevPAR – had dropped in the month-on-month analysis, all three had gained in a year-on-year comparison, though marginally so.
Leading & trailing markets The year-on-year analysis of the 13 markets in India reveals that Chandigarh and Kochi recorded growth in RevPAR at 18.1 per cent (standing at `3,715) and 11.4 per cent (standing at `4,120), respectively. Ahmedabad and Bengaluru wit-nessed a drop in RevPAR numbers by 15.9 per cent (standing at `3,380) and 8.1 per cent (standing at `4,740), respectively.
Hotel performance in India was muted in the month of January 2020 primarily because of some political unrest in the country as well as news of the COVID-19 outbreak. Chandigarh, however, witnessed double-digit RevPAR growth primarily due to increased demand from M!CE.
Hotel Sector Jan M-o-M Y-o-Y
Key Stats (Top 13 Markets in India) 2020 (%) (%)
ADR `6,560 -2.09 0.83
Occupancy 70.5% -0.15 0.50
RevPAR `4,620 -2.23 1.34
Source: HVS - Hotels & Hospitality Overview India
Leading & Trailing MarketsRevPAR (Y-o-Y)RevPAR (Y o Y)
FINAL_TT_March-2nd-2020.indd 6 3/17/2020 10:53:59 AM
MARCH 2 ND FORTNIGHT ISSUE 2020 TRAVTALK 7ASSOCIATIONS
IMEX Frankfurt, one of the
largest annual trade exhibitions for the meetings, conventions, events and incentive travel industry, has been cancelled, due to the coronavirus outbreak.
OTOAI is working hard to increase the dialogue with
concerned authorities to dis-cuss the matter of TCS and apprise them about the con-sequences of the tax regime on the outbound travel market. After making the first represen-tation regarding the TCS amend-ments proposed in the Finance Bill 2020, an OTOAI delegation called upon the Ministry of Tourism to apprise them about the situation and consequenc-es of TCS on the outbound tourism market.
The representation was well re-ceived by the ADG and she has assured that OTOAI’s represen-tation will be forwarded to Min-istry of Finance, Government of India, with Ministry of Tourism’s recommendations.
In the letter presented to Brar to withdraw the provisions of TCS on tour operators, OTOAI said that in their business, competi-tion is huge, margins are very thin, and there are lots of uncer-tainties. “This additional burden would impose huge costs, would require deployment of extra staff, maintenance of accounts, filing of returns and then matching all the figures. All these requirements require capacity building, developing capability incurring huge costs,
at a time when the industry is reeling under crisis and can ill afford. This would rather result in heavy slow-down of their business affect-ing employment instead. The new provision has come at the worst possible time, when the world economy is reeling under
a serious crisis of COVID-19 scare and airlines, hotels, logistics and transportation and all other related busi-nesses are facing a huge crisis, with layoff of workers and negative growth in the indus-try,” said Munshi in the letter. “In such a scenario, many
tour operators may be forced to close down their business, resulting in loss of business
and employment. Such an ex-ercise can, at best, contribute a very small amount to the
kitty at a huge cost to the busi-ness and is wholly avoidable,” he further said.
An OTOAI delegation led by President Riaz Munshi made a representation to Rupinder Brar, ADG, Ministry of Tourism and presented a detailed letter on TCS.
pulls out all stops for TCS Manas Dwivedi
Such an exercise can, at best, contribute a very small amount to the kitty at a huge cost to the business and is wholly avoidable
(From L-R): Shravan Bhalla, Riaz Munshi, Guldeep Singh Sahni and Raghuvinder Singh with Rupinder Brar, ADG, Ministry of Tourism
FINAL_TT_March-2nd-2020.indd 7 3/17/2020 10:54:01 AM
8 TRAVTALK MARCH 2 ND FORTNIGHT ISSUE 2020 ASSOCIATIONS
FAITH has written to MOT and the PMO to apprise the
government on the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak till now, and has been sending updates to them almost every fortnight since the outbreak was declared a global emergency.
The letter reads, “This is one of the worst crisis ever to hit the Indian tourism industry, impact-ing all its geographical seg-
ments - inbound, outbound and domestic, and almost all tourism verticals - leisure, adventure, heritage, M!CE, cruise, corporate and other niche segments. The whole tourism value chain across hotels, travel agents, tour op-erators, destinations, restaurants, family entertainment venues, as well as air, land and sea transpor-tation has been affected.”
The letter also mentions: Inbound tourism of more than
$28 billion in value accounts for almost 60-65% of the total be-tween October and March. As the news of the virus started picking up from November, the percentage of cancellations in this segment started going up exponentially, and is reaching a peak of almost 80% in March in many Indian locations. The value at risk from this segment will be in multiples of tens of thousands of crores.
Forward bookings for Octo-ber 2020-March 2021, which should have started picking up, aremuted. These are showing highly discouraging signs with cancellations of important global travel marts, which are market-places for contracting for the next season.
The value of NRI segment from developed markets, whose major season for visit is families and relatives, is around 60% during April to September. There are re-ports of large-scale forward can-cellations from these, and unless the progression of the virus stops, almost the entire value for the re-mainder of 2020 season is at risk.
The holiday season of Indians, both for travelling within the coun-try and outside it, is heavy from April to July and from October to December. More than 28 mil-lion Indians are estimated to have
travelled outside in 2019 and there were almost 1.8 billion domestic tourist footfalls. The December holiday season of 2019 took an estimated hit of almost 40-50%; the holiday season of April to July 2020 is likely to take a hu-
mongous hit, too, which could be as high as 80-100% unless there is positive news of the progression of the virus de-creasing. There are advanced cancellations and highly reduced forward-booking pipelines for the holiday season. Only corporates are flying and that, too, only on highly essential same-day travel.
Most MNCs are advising work from home.
Cruise tourism of all kinds has come to a complete standstill with no clearances.
Unexpected no-shows are happening and most group meetings and celebrations have been cancelled. Even eating out at restaurants is coming under serious pressure.
To save on variable costs and minimise fixed costs, many small and mid-sized hotels, resorts and car rental companies are shutting down operations and asking staff to go on leave without pay.
Most Indian travel and hos-pitality companies are facing de-mands for full refunds and they are doing so out of their cash re-serves, even for which they have paid advance tax & GST.
Working capital of most tour-ism corporates is hit by almost 60% and for micro, small and medium tourism enterprises by almost 80%. Margins are nil or negligible in many cases.
If there ever was a time for the Central and state governments and the tourism industry to stand together, this is it. The employees, managers and entrepreneurs are bravely fighting for survival at the front line and need an umbrella cover of relief and support from the Central and state government. Once the virus stops progressing and as the domestic traveller will start returning upon seeing such confidence-building measures, the global traveller will also be enthused. This will be the time for India to start its global tour-ism strategy revival and target even those tourist source mar-kets that were travelling to our competing nations.
Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) has been regularly sharing updates with the Ministry of Tourism (MOT) and Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on the impact of COVID-19 on the industry. The association recommends the utilisation of this time for creating a tourism strategy revival.
COVID-19: Impact and recoveryNisha Verma
This will be the time for India to start its global tourism strategy revival and target even those tourist source markets that were travelling to our competing nations
FINAL_TT_March-2nd-2020.indd 8 3/17/2020 10:54:03 AM
10 TRAVTALK MARCH 2 ND FORTNIGHT ISSUE 2020 EXHIBITIONS
All regular visas to India suspended till 15th April
Genting Dream to start sailing out of Singapore from 27th March
Mayfair to open India’s first boutique tea resort in Siliguri in 2020
ATM postponed; new dates from June 28 to July 1, 2020
Kerala records 1.96 crore domestic and foreign arrivals in 2019, highest since 1996
HICSA postponed; to be held from July 22-23, 2020
TUI offers benefits worth `4,000 for Maldives
Held at Montana Vista in Sil-iguri, West Bengal, from
February 22-24, 2020, the event brought together tourism stakeholders from pan India, including West Bengal and its neighbouring states like Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Around 120-140 buyers from across
India gathered at this event that hosted 80 to 90 domestic and 40 to 50 international buyers from Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, and some European nations who got an opportunity to interact with the local stakeholders of the east-ern Himalaya region in general,
and West Bengal in particular. Sandipan Ghosh, General Secretary, Eastern Himalaya Travel & Tour Operators Asso-ciation (EHTTOA), said, “What is encouraging is that for the first time, we have participation in big numbers from Nepal and Bangladesh. This would further give a boost to cross-border tourism promotion.”
Major hotel chains like Marriott, MayFair, Sterling Holidays, Sum-mit Hotels, Waxpol, Golden Ho-tels, Pride Hotels, Jagjeet Hotels and Resorts, Yangthang Group of Hotels, Pine Tree Group, Anand Palace, were present at the event. Bengal, Gujarat, Tripura, Madhya
Pradesh & Odisha, Sikkim were the state participants. Nepal Tourism Board, Pokhara Tour-ism Council, Tour Operators As-sociation of Bangladesh were the international partners, while IATO, ADTOI, ETAA, JTWA were the as-sociation partners of the event. The highlight of the event was the signing of a MoU between EHTTOA (Eastern Himalaya
Travel and Tour Operators Asso-ciation) and TOAB (Tour Opera-tors Association of Bangladesh) to promote cross border tour-ism. The mart also focused on promotion of homestays, which have mushroomed across North Bengal and Sikkim.
The fifth edition of the Bengal Travel Mart was a brilliant showcase for the promotion of tourism destinations in the state and its neighbouring countries as well.
140 buyers at
Vani Sunder
ITB Berlin, the prestigious an-nual travel trade event held
in Germany, was cancelled for the year 2020 in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. There were a lot of questions emerging after the show was cancelled, especially regard-ing the refunds and rental fee. Addressing the matter, David Ruetz, Head, ITB Berlin, says, “For all main exhibitors of ITB Berlin 2020, the advance pay-ment of the stand rental fee, exhibitor tickets and AUMA fee will be refunded. All trade visitor passes for ITB Berlin ordered and paid via the ITB Berlin ticket shop will be re-funded. The same applies to the public visitor tickets of ITB Berlin 2020.”
The booths at the exhibition were already under construc-tion when the cancellation was
announced, which has resulted in losses. Ruetz shares, “The booth designers usually star t working one week prior to the show. By the time the cancel-lation was announced, 40 per-cent of the stands had already been constructed. We are ex-pecting considerable damage overall, not only for us as a trade fair company, but also for Berlin and the entire travel in-dustry. Due to the timing of the cancellation, we ask for your understanding that all detailed questions regarding ITB Berlin and its subsidiaries must be checked first.”
Many people from the industry feel that the deci-sion to call off the show was taken too last minute. However, Ruetz feels, “Messe Berlin has been pointing out for weeks that the deci-sion to hold or cancel major events can only be made
according to the recom-mendation or instruction of the relevant authorities. Only these authorities have the necessary information
and exper tise to draw the right conclusions. The respon-sible public health authority of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdor f of Berlin had greatly in-creased the requirements for holding the event in the early evening (18:27 pm CET, Feb-ruary 28, 2020).”
He feels that the tourism in-dustry needs ITB more than ever. “ITB is offering digital services 365 days a year by launching itb.com. We are establishing a completely new networking platform for the world’s travel industry.
It spans a bridge between real-life meetings and digital networking, and features inno-vative tools for business, net-working and exclusive content.
Hence, at the forward-look-ing events of the ITB Vir tual Convention, leading speak-ers from ITB will be discuss-ing how the world’s travel industry can harness intel-ligent strategies to make sure it remains future-proof,” shared Ruetz.
He added, “We also wanted to give our par tners the oppor tunity to commu-nicate about all the events they have been planning for the week (4-8 March) away from the Berlin Exhibition Grounds. Exhibitors were asked to send us the infor-mation about their planned event. Everyone who had news to share with the in-dustry at ITB Berlin 2020 was asked to share the messag-es on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter using the hashtag: #whatwewanted-tosayatITB.”
David Ruetz, Head, ITB Berlin, shares that the cancellation of the prestigious event was unfortunate, but refunds will be processed. Also, a new networking platform— itb.com has been launched to offer digital services 365 days a year for the travel industry around the world.
ITB starts processing refunds
Nisha Verma
David RuetzHead, ITB Berlin
ITB is offering digital services 365 days a year by launching itb.com. We are establishing a new networking platform for the world’s travel industry
FINAL_TT_March-2nd-2020.indd 10 3/17/2020 10:54:08 AM
12 TRAVTALK MARCH 2 ND FORTNIGHT ISSUE 2020 FAMILYALBUM
Singapore Tourism Board along with Sheeraz Tours organised a product update session in Lucknow, which witnessed the attendance of over 100 tour operators and agencies from Lucknow, Kanpur and Prayagraj. The event was supported by TripShapers.com, Resorts World Singapore, Dream Cruises, Royal Caribbean International and TIRUN Travel Marketing.
Singapore & Sheeraz woo UP
Eastbound Group kicked off its ‘Eastbound Connect’ series
recently, which had Dr. Arokias-wamy Velumani, CEO & Founder, Thyrocare, as the first speaker for the experiential trade en-gagement event series. The first event happened at Hotel Le Me-ridien, Gurgaon, which saw a full house, where attendees listened to the thought-provoking ses-sion titled ‘Focus, Learn, Grow & Enjoy’, where the speaker cited examples from his inspirational journey led by determination, belief and consistency. Amit Kishore, Co-founder and Direc-tor at Eastbound Group, said, “Eastbound Connect series is about the responsibility we take as a stakeholder of the travel industry and the importance we see in collaborative devel-opment. It is very heartening
that we opened and closed to a full house in the first chapter itself. The event portfolio would eventually include multiple ar-eas of knowledge, skill and leadership development.”
Added Prrithviraj Singh, Co-founder & Director at Eastbound Group, “It’s an individual com-mitment to a group effort, that is what makes it a teamwork, a company work, an industry
work and a society work. This is our endeavour as a group to ex-pand our circle of influence and present an industry platform for learning and networking.”
Kishore also said that while this was the first such event, they will try to take it to other cities in future. “We’d like to take the series to Mumbai as well as Chennai and Ben-galuru. However, most of our in-house team and clients are in Delhi, and hence a large part of the series will happen here,” he shared.
Eastbound Group’s latest initiative — Eastbound Connect — is dedicated to empower and enlighten its partners and help them achieve success in the dynamic and ever-changing travel industry.
Right 'Connect' to success
Nisha Verma
Amit KishoreCo-founder and Director Eastbound Group
The portfolio would eventually include areas of knowledge, skill and leadership development
The Indian government has decided not to let any cruise ship from any foreign destination dock at any of its port. The measure has been taken
keeping in mind the growing threat of COVID-19.
FINAL_TT_March-2nd-2020.indd 12 3/17/2020 10:54:14 AM
16 TRAVTALK MARCH 2 ND FORTNIGHT ISSUE 2020 HOTELS16 TRAVTALK MARCH 2 ND FORTNIGHT ISSUE 2020
Organised consecutively for four years, Accor Show-
case has acted as a catalyst for the growth of both inbound and outbound customers. In 2020 as well, the Accor Showcase saw an enormous response from the travel fraternity in New Delhi and Mumbai. Its fourth edi-tion saw participation from 52 Accor properties globally. The hotel representatives interacted with more than 1,000 tourism leaders at Pullman New Delhi Aerocity on February 26 and Sofitel Mumbai BKC on February 28, 2020.
This year as well, the roadshow saw positive conversions for many participants, especially for Baku, Turkey and London. Many corporates, travel part-ners, wedding planners, travel agents, airline partners and
others attended the event. Luxury and leisure segments being key aspects for Accor, created a buzz at the showcase.
The most awaited brand, Raffles, also attracted conver-sation amongst the participants. Also, the upcoming Fairmont in Mumbai was discussed amongst the industry peers. The all-new loyalty programme, ALL- Accor Live Limitless and its offerings was also a highlight.
Kerrie Hannaford, VP, Commer-cial, Accor India and South Asia, said, “We have received extraor-dinary response from the Indian
market. We were a little nervous because the world at the moment lives in uncertain times. India is probably one of the most resilient markets. It is very much a domes-tic market, with huge outbound flow as well. You can see the ro-bustness of the Indian market be-cause instead of cancelling their
conference, they continue with their plans but are now booking in India. The wedding market was
phenomenal in 2019 and it con-tinues to be strong even in March 2020, as does corporate travel.”
Opening soon is the Grand Mer-cure in Bengaluru, followed by Raffles in Udaipur by mid-2020. “This is truly our first exclusive luxury property opening for the Indian market – the first Raffles for India and we are so excited about it. It is a whole new level of luxury
coming up on a private island,” Hannaford added.
Rohit Chopra, Regional Director Sales - India, Accor, said, “For this show, we had hotels from different categories. We have multiple Raffles and Fairmonts from different countries, and they are looking to tap the M!CE and wedding segments. This year, we had participants from Azerbaijan, London, North Europe as well as representatives from USA global sales, so it’s a very proud moment for us that we are being looked at as an import point of sale by all of them. For the first time, we went for online registrations and in both
cities, over 250 people pre-regis-tered for it. The Accor Showcase has truly built up its reputation in last four years.”
On marketing plans, he added, “We are looking at more com-munication with the partners, more tie-ups, more client en-gagements, people beyond the road, on all different platforms, we are looking at business with a more segment-wise, focused approach. The entire world is looking towards India and that is a positive sign. We look forward to seeing more growth in India as well.”
With two big openings in India soon, Accor has pinned its hopes on the India market, especially after the resounding success it saw for the fourth edition of its Accor Showcase 2020 in Mumbai and New Delhi. The events were attended by 52 global properties of Accor, conducting meetings with over 1,000 trade professionals.
52 Accor hotels count on IndiaHazel Jain
Kerrie HannafordVP, Commercial, India & South Asia
Rohit ChopraRegional Director Sales, India
India is probably one of the most resilient markets; it is very much a domestic market, with huge outbound flow as well
– Kerrie Hannaford
Called ‘100% Pure Welcome – 100% Pure New Zealand’, the
campaign draws from the insight that morning is an important time of the day for Indians, as well as for New Zealanders. As part of the campaign a yearlong content series has been released with ‘Good Morning World’ messages shared by locals welcoming
visitors from their favourite spots across the country.
To coincide with the brand launch, Tourism New Zealand and Immigration New Zealand together launched an extension of the Tourism Industry Partner-ship (TIP) Programme to facilitate
faster processing of visitor visa applications for Indian leisure travellers. The new arrangement provides Indian leisure travellers a more streamlined visa service with a faster processing time of seven working days.
Steven Dixon, Regional Trade Marketing Manager- Asia, Tour-ism New Zealand said, “The extension of this programme is
built on the success of our exist-ing partnerships over the last five years. We are grateful to continue our association with Kulin Kumar Holidays, SOTC Travel and Tho-mas Cook India and we are look-ing forward to welcoming many more Indian leisure travellers by adding Flamingo Transworld,
Kesari Tours and Veena World. Between the three new part-ners, Indian visitors can now get expedited visitor visa process-ing in 60 additional locations across India.”
The Tourism Industry Partner-ship was originally launched in November 2014. Valid only for incentive visas in the first year, a grand total of 876 applications
were processed. Last year, dur-ing the period of June 2018-July 2019, more than 5,000 (5,492) applications (which included in-centive and leisure visas) were processed under the partner-ship, which is a positive 627 per cent increase compared to the first year.
Tourism New Zealand and Immigration New Zealand have launched their latest brand campaign, as well as an extension of the Tourism Industry Partnership (TIP) programme.
TIPs from Tourism NZ
Manas Dwivedi
Accor has, under its umbrella, more than 39 brands, ranging from luxury to economy. The group has 5,000 hotels spread across 110 countries.
Fact File
FINAL_TT_March-2nd-2020.indd 16 3/17/2020 10:54:28 AM
18 TRAVTALK MARCH 2 ND FORTNIGHT ISSUE 2020 DESTINATIONS
A hidden gem in northernmost UAE, Ras Al Khaimah is a dream destination for all travellers. The emirate boasts of magnificent landscapes featuring breathtaking coastlines, terracotta desert planes, and the Hajar mountain range with the UAE’s highest peak – Jebel Jais. With year-long sunshine & 64 kms of white beaches, RAK offers a unique experience.
Top 10 things to do in RAK
Hazel Jain
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Jebel Jais FlightThe Jebel Jais Flight is the world’s longest zipline and a bucket-list at-traction for tourists around the world. Those who wish to take the plunge will get to travel at speeds of 120kph to 150kph, 1,680 metres above sea level. Fitted with a special harness, visitors will have the chance to experience the thrill for two to three minutes.
Jebel Jais Viewing Deck ParkViewing Deck Park is open from 8am-8pm on weekdays and 8am-11pm on weekends. The 22,730 sqm park fea-tures seven viewing decks complete with 12 binoculars. It offers visitors an opportunity to enjoy superb vistas of the Arabian Gulf and Al Hajar Mountain valley from 1,250 m above sea level.
Suwaidi Pearls FarmAbdullah Al Suwaidi set up the region’s first cultured pearl farm. It is located on a sliver alongside the sea and the mountains that Al Rams nestles. Here, visitors can learn the techniques of pearl farming and actually try opening an oyster.
Kayaking in mangrovesMangroves and salt flats form a large part of the coastal and inland landscape of RAK. They are home to a variety of fauna including flamingoes, and extend right to the centre of Ras Al Khaimah,. Onecan take kayak excursions to ex-plore the mangroves.
Wadi ShowkaFor the adventurous, mountain bik-ing in Wadi Showka offers that added adrenaline rush and excitement. Expect endless routes of downhill and uphill thrills passing through local farms and wild camels. Guests can also join the guided group ride at sunrise. Visitors can also indulge in a mix of canyoning and hiking.
Jais Sky TourCovering a total distance of 5 kms via a series of seven zip lines ranging from 337 metres to just over a kilometre, the Jais Sky Tour will give visitors a panoramic, bird’s eye view of the towering Hajar Mountains. They will navigate their way through the sky averaging speeds of 60 kmph and find themselves at UAE’s high-est sky bridge, 1,250m above sea level.
RAK MuseumThe National Museum of Ras Al Khaimah houses a collection of archaeological and ethnological artefacts. Interesting items include documents, manuscripts and treaties between the rulers of RAK and Great Britain. There are also exhibits of traditional weapons belonging to the ruling family and archaeological displays about the earliest settlers in the area.
Miss Teak CruiseTourists can cruise their way on the vibrant waters of the Arabian Sea on a traditionally decorated wooden dhow (yacht) along the virgin beach for Al Marjan Island, as they take in pictur-esque views of the city such as the pyr-amid building at Bab Al Bahr. This allows visitors to take in the amazing views of water and the surroundings.
Bedouin Oasis CampThis secret haven has been designed for discerning customers lloking for a tradi-tional experience of the Arabian desert, fused with luxury. The Bedouin Oasis is an authentic reproduction of Bedouin life as it used to be. The experience includes activities like dune-bashing, sand-board-ing, barbeque dinners, and even an over-night stay in Bedouin-style tents.
Al Wadi Equestrian Adventure CentreThe Ritz-Carlton RAK resort’s equestrian centre offers lessons and experiences for guests of all age and skill levels. Guests can enjoy a range of activities, including camel riding and horse riding, or simply take the little ones for a fun in-teractive experience with the ponies.
FINAL_TT_March-2nd-2020.indd 18 3/17/2020 10:54:37 AM
20 TRAVTALK MARCH 2 ND FORTNIGHT ISSUE 2020 AVIATION
India is a prominent market for Sri Lanka and SriLankan
Airlines, claims V Ravindran. “We operate in 11 destinations in India. In some of the metros like Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, we have at least double-daily flights. At other stations, we have a minimum of three flights and at some, we have daily flights. That’s how important India is as a source market for Sri Lanka,” he says.
Since September 2019, Ravin-dran adds, the Indian market has performed extremely well in terms of both passenger numbers and revenue gener-
ated. While the former led the airline to increase frequency, especially in Delhi where it now
has 21 flights a week instead of 18, the latter was primarily on account of “fantastic per-formance of the sales team.”
After the unfortunate incident in Colombo in April 2019, In-dia was the quickest market to
bounce back for Sri Lanka. “In December 2019, tourist arriv-als from India grew compared to December 2018. Hence, we
are grateful to Indian tourists,” Ravindran shares.
SriLankan’s strategy is to pro-mote both the airline and the destination through various mediums such as direct con-sumer marketing campaigns, special promotions, special event promotions, festival promotions, and even anniver-saries and special dates like
11/11, which is catching up globally as ‘Single’s Day’. In addition, Ravindran says, they are focusing on M!CE move-
ment from India. “We have some new destinations to be added as per business plan, subject to aircraft procurement. Hence, Ahmedabad and Calicut are going to be the latest Indian destinations to be connected via SriLankan. With that, we are going to fly to 11 destina-tions in India, and we will start a minimum of four flights a week. We also have plans to
operate to Sydney. We are al-ready flying four daily flights to Melbourne. This will be a good product for the Indian leisure market specifically to Austral-ia,” he says.
Insisting that travel agents are one of the main stakeholders for them, Ravindran shares, “We are giving two per cent commission to travel agents. We try to make any fares or of-fers available to them because their reach is more. It is fair to say that without travel agents, it is very difficult to manage. We have some plans in terms of promotions as well.”
On the COVID-19 outbreak, he says, “People are reluctant to travel, and we need to monitor and see if there are cancella-tions. We are cautious and taking all possible action to prevent the spread, if any.”
V Ravindran, Regional Manager - India & Bangladesh, SriLankan Airlines, says that India remains their top source market and hence they are increasing frequencies to existing locations in the country, while looking to add Calicut and Ahmedabad to their network by the end of this year, which would boost M!CE movement further.
SriLankan adds new Indian pointsNisha Verma
V RavindranRegional Manager - India & Bangladesh, SriLankan Airlines
We are giving two per cent commission to travel agents. Without them, it is very difficult to manage
According to HVS India Hospitality Overview 2019, Chandigarh recorded the highest growth in RevPAR (12.3%) in 2019. However, Mumbai continued to
record the highest RevPAR of `6,464 in 2019.
We welcomed 65,000 Indian visitors in 2019, pushing India to the top 10 list of international visitors for 2019
Florian SengstschmidCEO, Azerbaijan Tourism Board
India was in the top 10 list of source countries for Azerbaijan in 2019. Ease in visa procedures and its popularity as a wedding paradise have helped the destination win tourists, but there is still a lot to explore.
India in focus for Azerbaijan
Year 2019 was the first time that Azerbaijan hit the three
million global visitor mark. It was also the first year that India made it to its top 10 international source markets. Sharing this is Florian Sengstschmid, CEO of Azerbaijan Tourism Board, who says, “We received 3.2 million visitors in 2019 from all over the world, which was a growth of 12 per cent. India especially showed an amazing growth rate of al-most 70 per cent as compared to 2018. We welcomed 65,000 Indian visitors in 2019, pushing India to the top 10 list of interna-tional visitors for 2019. We think there is still a lot of scope to grow this market.”
Speaking about the segments that did incredibly well, he adds,
“The wedding segment did very well for us in 2019. Weddings in Azerbaijan are as important to us as they are in India, and we can offer everything from horses to fire shows. We hosted several big weddings in Baku last year. In fact, Indian wedding planners have already settled in Baku. We are also promoting skiing in our country. Since we have nine out of 11 climate zones in a small
territory, travelling is also easy.” The Azerbaijan Tourism Board is also promoting special interest travellers for activities such as kite-surfing, bird watching, as well as health and wellness. The country offers the e-visa facility for Indian nationals. The Board
is also working towards finalis-ing a three-city roadshow across Delhi, Ahmedabad and Mumbai, with the aim of connecting with tour operators,” he says.
Hazel Jain
Mount Everest has shut down for the rest of the expedition season because of the coronavirus outbreak. Nepal's government announced that it would
cancel all climbing permits from 14 March until 30 April.
FINAL_TT_March-2nd-2020.indd 20 3/17/2020 10:54:41 AM
MARCH 2 ND FORTNIGHT ISSUE 2020 TRAVTALK 2 1QUICKBYTES
The travel industry under-stands the severity of the virus and has been taking measures to ensure the safety of its cus-tomersr. For instance, leading visa service provider VFS Glo-bal is discounting their optional services such as doorstep visa and even the courier return services, so customers don’t have to step out and go to visa application centres. They can now do this in the comfort and safety of their own homes.
We see that the slowdown in business is as high as 45-50 per cent. Travellers, at least for leisure, are not travelling. The business traveller is also wary and trying to postpone his trip. With the excep-tion of China, HK and Iran where flights are not operating, other airlines are offering a waiver on change in travel date but not on cancellations. We have postponed our convention to and we may look at a different destination.
Summer is the peak travel period in India. But due to the current situation we can antici-pate a drop of 20-25 per cent in future bookings for Southeast Asia and Italy. They are wary of making fresh bookings to the affected locations and airfares to these places have dropped by 20-30 per cent. We have received 35 per cent of cancella-tion queries from clients visiting international destinations.
Refund on cancellation of flights and hotel bookings is defi-nitely being provided to the trav-ellers by the respective airlines and hotels. As an organisation striving towards making travel safer for customers, we are providing medical hospitalisa-tion and cancellation benefits to travellers whose travel book-ings were undertaken prior to the issuance of Government of India’s advisory.
Jyoti MayalPresident, TAAI
Dev KarvatFounder & CEO – India & Emerging Markets TrawellTag Cover-More
The COVID-19 outbreak has taken the entire world by storm, and has dealt a big blow to the travel and tourism industry across the world. Here’s how a few trade associations and travel companies are responding to the chaos that has followed after the spread of the virus. This will also help agents advise their clients accordingly.
Travel in the time of COVID-19
Sabina ChopraCo-founder and COO, Corporate Travel & Head Industry Relations, Yatra.com
Pradip LullaActing President & VP, TAFI
Inputs by Hazel Jain
With the safety of our travel-lers as the primary goal, the Glo-bus family believes in giving them more time and flexibility with the travel decisions. We are moni-toring the situation to determine if additional modifications and updates are needed regarding advisements and policies. We are offering an interim policy for our travellers and agents to adjust travel plans and help alleviate im-mediate concerns.
Varesh ChopraRegional Director – South Asia & Middle East Globus family of brands
Expect greater confidence with Regent Reassurance. For all voyages beginning between April 3, 2020 and November 1, 2020, clients can cancel up to 30 days prior to sailing and re-ceive a 100% credit, which can be used for a new booking within one year on any 2020 or 2021 Regent voyage. This applies to all existing bookings plus new book-ings made by April 30, 2020.
Steve OdellSVP & MD - Asia Pacific Regent Seven Seas Cruises & Oceania Cruises
FINAL_TT_March-2nd-2020.indd 21 3/17/2020 10:54:44 AM
ASSOCIATIONTALK
For more information, contact us at: [email protected]
Form - IVStatement about ownership and other particulars about
New Delhi - 110001
New Delhi - 110001
New Delhi - 110001
New Delhi - 110001
Captain Swadesh Kumar rep-resented the entire adventure
tourism industry in the country and shared some points with the CM on how they can boost business in the adventure sector
in the state. “The best part is, he accepted all my suggestions and agreed to take action on the same by March 31,” he said.
Sharing details, he added, “My first recommendation was to get the Nanda Devi sanctuary opened. It was closed in 1982 for 10 years for ecology reasons, but
nobody has opened it till now. If it is opened, there will be employ-ment opportunities for the locals and also the pressure would be released on the Gangotri area, which is inundated by visitors.”
He also urged the CM to get the four pilgrimages of Gan-gotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath temples to open for 12 months. “Earlier the roads were bad and there was no
technology to clear the snow, but now things are better,” he added. Kumar revealed that they have requested the Ut-tarakhand government to not charge booking fee to the tour operators for climbing or trek-king expeditions. “The CM agreed to consider our request of not charging any booking fee,
which goes to the tune of 65k for expeditions. We have also asked him to open new trekking routes in the area and promote the same,” he informed.
He mentioned that there are no rescue centres in the country, and hence they have made a request to create rescue centres for Uttarkashi, Joshimath, where the climbing expeditions and trekking are going on. Insisting that the most crucial thing is pro-motion of tourism in Uttarakhand, he said, “There is no scheme where you can help the industry in Uttarakhand to promote the products. Hence, I suggested that they can do something similar to MOT’s MDA scheme at the state level. I also told them to partici-pate in the travel and tourism fairs across the country and the world. There should be aggressive mar-keting with the government going with the industry and sell pack-ages on the spot. I am sure that if these ideas succeed in Uttara-khand, they can be duplicated in other states as well.”
Captain Swadesh Kumar, President, Adventure Tour Operators Association of India (ATOAI), shares that he recently got a chance of putting forth the issues of adventure tour industry in front of the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand for consideration.
Nisha Verma
ATOAI bats for Uttarakhand
Captain Swadesh KumarPresident, ATOAI
They accepted all our suggestions and agreed to take action on the same by March 31
An evening with Japanese food
Working actively to raise awareness about Japanese food and Sake (Rice Wine) in India, Satoshi Suzuki, Ambassador of Japan to India, hosted ‘An Evening with Japanese Food 2020’ at his residence in New Delhi, to promote Japanese food in India.
Media Partners:
MARCH 2020MITT Moscow 17-19
New Zealand Tourism Webinar Pan India 17
Global Hospitality and Tourism Shillong 18-20Conference on Experiential Management and Marketing
Switzerland Tourism Webinar Pan India 20
IITE Bhubaneswar 20-22
Korea Tourism Webinar Pan India 25
WTM Latin America Sao Paulo 31-Apr 2
APRIL 2020Korea Tourism Webinar Pan India 3
Travel Nevada Webinar Pan India 8
Korea Tourism Webinar Pan India 9
India Tourism Conclave by CEPR Delhi 21
International Conference on Rural Tourism Dehradun 24-27IATO Election Delhi 25
MAY 2020ILTM Latin America Sao Paulo 5-8
Africa’s Travel Indaba Durban 12-14
ILTM Asia Pacific Singapore 31-Jun 3
JUNE 2020British Travel & Tourism Show Birmingham 11-12
IATA AGM Amsterdam 22-23Arabian Travel Market (ATM) Dubai 28-Jul 1
JULY 2020TTF Kolkata 3-5
International Conference on Singapore 6-7Tourism & Hospitality
TTF South Hyderabad 10-11
HICSA 2020 Mumbai 22-23
AUGUST 2020Digital Travel Summit APAC 2020 Sentosa 17-19
India 2020 Busan, Korea 20-21Tourism-Travel & Hospitality Event
International Conference on Kolkata 21-22Sustainable Tourism
IBTM China Beijing 26-27
Gloria Guevara, President & CEO of WTTC and former
Tourism Minister of Mexico, has urged governments and authori-ties worldwide not to overreact with disproportionate measures in a bid to control COVID-19. She says, “Governments and those in authority must not seek to choke travel and trade at this time. Closing borders, imposing
blanket travel bans and imple-menting extreme policies are not the answer to stopping the spread of coronavirus.”
She added, “Past experience shows that taking such extreme action has been ineffective at best. We urge governments to explore fact-based measures which don’t affect majority of people and businesses for whom travel is essential.”
COVID-19 has a lower mortal-ity rate than previous viral out-breaks such as SARS in 2003 and MERS in 2012. Guevara
said, “We understand there is huge concern about COVID-19. However, fatality rates remain very low and the chances of con-tracting the virus, for majority of people, are very remote if they travel responsibly.”
World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has said that closing borders, blanket travel bans and more extreme government policies will not stop the spread of coronavirus.
Nisha Verma
Choking travel won’t curb spread
Gloria GuevaraPresident & CEO, WTTC
We urge governments to explore fact-based measures which don’t affect majority of people
SEPTEMBER 2020UITT 2020 Kyiv, Ukraine 1-3
COTTM Beijing 9-11
KITF Almaty 24-26
FINAL_TT_March-2nd-2020.indd 22 3/17/2020 10:54:46 AM
MARCH 2 ND FORTNIGHT ISSUE 2020 TRAVTALK 23CLIPBOARD
FINAL_TT_March-2nd-2020.indd 23 3/17/2020 10:54:47 AM
24 TRAVTALK MARCH 2 ND FORTNIGHT ISSUE 2020 MOVEMENTS
ALTAIR HOTELKolkataAyan Mitra is the new General Manager of the boutique hotel, AltAir, which is strategically located near Sector V of Salt Lake in Kolkata. Mitra has been handed over the role to maintain the grandeur of the boutique hotel built by the Neotia Group. He was earlier the General Manager of The Stadel Kolkata. He also led the bar & beverage operation of Swissôtel. An IHMITE pass out, Mitra started his endeavour with ITC Sonar, Kolkata followed by The Park, Kolkata and Kenilworth hotel. He achieved another milestone in his career with his association with Best Western group of hotels, Chandigarh as Food & Beverage Manager.
THE MANOHAR HOTELHyderabadChandan Kumar Chanchal has been appointed as General Manager at The Manohar-Hyderabad hotel. He brings with him over 16 years of
experience in the hospitality industry, with core competency in sales and marketing. He has
previously been associated with other reputed brands like Hyatt, Radisson, Holiday Inn, Sarovar Hotels, and The Lalit. In the new role at The Manohar-Hyderabad, Chanchal will oversee overall hotel operations by providing strategic guidance to the team. He will ensure that
all operational and budgetary goals are met, and that customer satisfaction is
top priority in delivering a quality experience to guests.
RENAISSANCE CONVENTION CENTRE MumbaiRenaissance Mumbai has recently announced the appointment of Bjorn Fernandes as the Director of Sales & Marketing for Renaissance
Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel & Lakeside Chalet, Mumbai – Marriott Executive
Apartments. In the new role, Fernandes will help position the hotel among the leading ones in the city, with the immense amount of experience he brings to the hotel. Prior to this new appointment, Fernandes
was appointed as the Market Director of Revenue Management – Mumbai
Cluster for Marriott International. He has been part of
the Marriott family for a decade now.
IBIS CITY CENTRE CoimbatoreSandip Satange has been appointed as Hotel Manager at ibis Coimbatore City Centre. Satange brings with him a rich international hospitality experience with over 11 years across global hospitality brands in India, USA and UK, including stints with ibis London Shepherd’s Bush and ibis London Heathrow. His journey with Accor started in 2010 as the F&B Team Leader of ibis London Heathrow. During this course, he successfully led the pre-opening of four hotels and was one of the key members of the pre-opening team of ibis Chennai Sipcot. He also spearheaded the opening and launch of Holiday Inn Express, Bengaluru Whitefield as Hotel Manager.
FOUR POINTS BY SHERATON Bengaluru Kadambari Sabharwal Talwar has been appointed as the Hotel Manager at Four Points by Sheraton Bengaluru Whitefield. With over 18 years of experience, Talwar is an outstanding hospitality professional. In her current role, she will be spearheading many initiatives that guarantee exceptional guest service and financial profitability. Prior to this, she was the Market Director of Sales & Marketing at Marriott in Bengaluru. She started her career with the Renaissance Mumbai Convention Center and then began her stint with Marriott. She has a bachelor’s degree in Hotel Management from the Institute of Hotel Management, Aurangabad.
THE WESTIN GARDEN CITY MumbaiShalin Jose has been appointed as the new Director of Spa at The Westin Mumbai Garden City. With over 16 years of experience in the wellness industry, Jose’s abilities span every facet of the industry, including management, concept development, marketing, branding and business development. He brings with him a wealth of knowledge to the position and prior to joining The Westin Mumbai Garden City, was Spa Director for the Starwood Hotels and Resorts for three years. In the new role, Jose will be responsible for the efficient running of all existing spa facilities within Westin Mumbai’s portfolio.
TOURISM AUTHORITY OF THAILANDNew Delhi Vachirachai Sirisumpan has been appointed as the new Director of Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) New Delhi Office. He has been with
TAT for more than 20 years with extensive experience working in various divisions, including International
Relations - Europe, Middle East and Africa Markets, Domestic Marketing, and Policy and
Planning. Prior to his assignment to head the TAT Delhi Office, he was the Director
of Southern Market Division promoting and coordinating Thailand’s
southern region for domestic tourism. In his previous
assignment, Sirisumpan had been posted at TAT Dubai as Deputy Director
for Middle East.
NOVOTEL HOTELAhmedabad Novotel Ahmedabad has appointed Jayakrishnan Sudhakaran as the new General Manager. Jay brings with him 20 years of expertise in
sales, marketing and operations. Prior to joining Novotel Ahmedabad, Jay was the hotel manager at Novotel Ibis Chennai OMR. He has been associated with Accor for the past five years. He cleared the prestigious IHMP program in 2018 and this is his first project as a General Manager of a hotel. He began his journey
with Taj President Hotel, Mumbai in banqueting and later moved to be
a part of hospitality brands such as InterContinental Hotels, The
Carlson Hotels and the Zuri Hotels & Resorts in various capacities within sales.
ROYAL ORCHID HOTELSBengaluruShinoj Joseph has been promoted as Area General Manager for North Bengaluru and airport region for Royal Orchid Hotels. He has
been with Royal Orchid Hotels since 2017 and was earlier also the General Manager for
Hotel Royal Orchid Suites - Whitefield. He has been awarded for his dedication to the industry and the various brands he has worked for. Joseph has over two decades of experience in the hospitality
domain, especially in mid-segment hotels. In the new role, he will ensure that Royal
Orchid Hotels continues to make a mark for itself in the Bengaluru
region, ensuring all hotels are well-positioned to meet customer demands.
FINAL_TT_March-2nd-2020.indd 24 3/17/2020 10:54:52 AM
LASTPAGE
The Minister launched the website in the presence of
Yogendra Tripathi, Secretary, Tourism; Meenakshi Sharma, Director General, Tourism; Rakesh Verma, Joint Secretary, Tourism; Rupinder Brar, Ad-ditional Director General, Tour-ism; and G Kamala Vardhana Rao, CMD, ITDC, and other senior officials of the Ministry.
Multilingual websiteSpeaking on the occasion, Pa-tel, said, “Our targets are very clear. We want to showcase the diversity in the nation, in terms of language, dresses or food, which are the biggest identi-
ties of our cultural heritage. The tourists, both domestic and foreign, come to see this diversity. We should learn to cater to their tastes and inter-ests, and the same shall be visible on our website. In 2019, India witnessed the arrival of more than 10.9 million foreign tourists, of which about 6 lakh people speak Chinese, about 2 lakh speak Arabic, and about 1 lakh 25 thousand speak Span-ish. Hence, apart from English and Hindi, we have given space to these three languages on the website, so that they can take a better decision.”
He revealed that the immer-sive experience-based content
is provisioned on the website through 360 degree-experi-ence-based walk-throughs and stories and experiences related to food & cuisine, heritage, nature and wildlife, luxury, spiritual, adventure, art, shopping and much more. He added, “MOT’s Incredible In-dia 2.0 website aims towards showcasing the varied tourism products of India at a global arena by providing visitors with relevant, personalised and contextual digital experience escalating tourism awareness, attraction and opportunities.”
Sharing more details on the website, Meenakshi Sharma, said, “The website is quite
comprehensive, considering that Indian has so much to offer. It has almost 1 million words in each of the versions, covering 165 destinations, 24 experi-ences, smaller websites on the Land of Gandhi, Land of Bud-dha, and a lot of experimental content—crafted in India, 3D walkthrough, museums, world heritage sites, etc. We are also working on French, Japanese and Korean languages, which will be unveiled in future.”
Translation of signagesTo help tourists from Sri Lanka, MOT has got signages put up in Sanchi in Sinhalese language, which is the native language of the island nation, revealed
Patel. He says, “Majority of Sri Lankan tourists go to Sanchi, and there we have put up sig-nages in Sinhalese language within 7 days. As a result, we got appreciation within the country as well as in Sri Lanka. This is an example would only help us in working in the future. Wherever we have one lakh or more tourists coming, who are not comfortable in Hindi and English, we can offer the sig-nages in their languages and make it easy for them."
2021: Visit India Year?Patel also added that while they want to promote domestic tourism in India in 2020, and he said that they are thinking of de-
claring 2021 as Visit India Year, with an aim to invite people across the world to the coun-try and showcase its diversity. “We want people across the world to know India and see its cultural heritage and its attrac-tions. In order to showcase that we are in discussion to declare 2021 as Visit India Year. We want to make the new multi-lingual website and language facilities at important tourist sites, act as facilities to attract tourists from different countries across the world,” he shared.
Coronavirus scareThe Minister said that while everyone is aware about Coro-navirus and its impact around
the world, India is still much safer. “I believe that a lot of ef-ficiency and responsibility has been visible in the kind of safe-ty procedures being adopted at all our international airports. This has taken the respect for our country at higher level. This is a topic of grave concern, which needs to be monitored and analysed closely. The team is doing just that,” he claimed.
Sharma added that they will keep promoting India the way they had been, but this is the time where “everybody shall take a deep breath, wait for the crisis to get over and walk forward, while taking proper measures.”
Overseas agenciesMOT is already in process of signing agencies to handle its overseas promotions. Sharma shared, “We are working on having one agency in Australia and one is already working with China, which we have not been able to sign yet, but we will be signing later. There will also be
one in South Africa. In all our eight offices, we have agen-cies coming in very soon. By April, when the new financial year starts, we should have at least four agencies in four offices.”
Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism & Culture, recently launched the multilingual Incredible India website in New Delhi, wherein information will now also be available in Chinese, Arabic and Spanish. More languages will be introduced in the future.
Nisha Verma
MOT's multilingual website
We want people across the world to know India and see its cultural heritage and its attractions. In order to showcase that, we are in discussion to declare 2021 as Visit India Year
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Postal Reg. No.: DL(ND)-11/6044/2018-19-20; WPP No.: U(C)-178/2018-20 for posting on 1st-2nd and 16th-17th of the same month at NDHO, New Delhi - 110001, RNI No.: 53492/1991 Date of Publication: 15-03-2020
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